After dropping Kate at work on Friday morning, Winter and I spent an hour or so wandering around the beautiful Fitzroy Gardens.
We held hands and pottered through the trees and along the many pathways. We felt the warmth of the sun, and the cool of the shade. We chased birds and kicked pine cones. We stroked long, leathery leaves and shook tall bamboo canes. We stepped slowly, carefully, down brick steps to a foun... oop, no, we're climbing back up the steps. And down again. Oh and up again. Aaand down again. What about this fountain, Winter? Up again. Down again.
Several lifetimes later we left the steps and dragged our feet through the gravel paths of the flower-filled Conservatory, laughing at the crunchy noise. We watched a bus load of American tourists taking turns taking each other's photo on a small footbridge amid a backdrop of luscious colour. We ran from two gleaming vintage cars as they spluttered past, sounding like they were about to explode. We watched a plane fly overhead through the perfectly blue sky, and waved goodbye when it disappeared over the treeline.
And finally, when Winter's legs began to wobble, I carried her back to the car, waving goodbye to Mum up in her window across the road, and heading for home where Winter fell into an instant slumber, and I padded off to fill the kettle.
As mornings go, it was one of my finest.
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Just superb stuff, Apostropher. It took me back to the simple pleasures with my daughters it seems many years ago now. The fun times seem fewer as the years advance, they're less often as simple, and you cling to them more. Soak it in, A, these are the times of your life. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Phil. This morning I found myself already trying to cling to them as Winter stood in her highchair, refusing to eat her breakfast, and crying inconsolably for no apparent reason! "Do you want this?, No!, this?, No!, this...? No! What?! What is it?"
ReplyDelete(Back to the steps, back to the steps...)
Hehe.
She stopped crying eventually. I think it was an egg she was after. :)
ReplyDelete... and when they're 17, there's still "no apparent reason"! My morning...
ReplyDelete(daughter enters room, stage L)
Dad: Good morning, Carolyn!
Carolyn: Hmmph
Dad: ... is everything alright?
Carolyn: Hmmph
(breakfast continues in silence)
(daughter departs, stage L)
Ha, ha. I know I shouldn't laugh, but I do love it when teenagers behave like such teenage cliches. Like the angry looking girl I sat next to on the train the other day: dyed black hair, black and red punk-style clothes, bottom lip piercing, sullen glare, a little badge pinned to her bag that said "...and you can fuck off too." She was such a tormented adolescent it just made me want to go "mwuurrrr" at her (if you know what I mean?) and give her a big hug. So funny.
ReplyDeleteAnd then when she got out her phone, dialled, and said in a mumbled whisper, "Can you pick me up now?" I nearly laughed.
And yes, JJ, it did make me think back to my angry rebellious years when I still made sure I was home by 6:30 for dinner. :)
Oh, and incidentally, as I crossed at the lights I walked in front of her car waiting to leave the station. And there she was, sitting in the front passenger seat, arms crossed, shoulders hunched, same sullen glare, but this time mixed with a touch of embarrassment/resentment. Poor girl. :)
ReplyDeleteNice story. It is confronting, if not saddening, when they develop the "cool to be sullen" stuff. It makes it seem a long way from the hugging my baby girl phase. And one is just assured that eventually they do "come out the other side".
ReplyDeleteYep, I think most people I know have come out the other side, which does give me no small comfort when I realise it's just a matter of time until it's my turn to wait at the end of the tunnel. Although, of course, I guess you always need to be aware that sometimes they're not just ticking the familiar boxes of teenage rebellion; sometimes the silences or the abrasive attitude can indicate serious issues beneath the surface, and actually be a cry for help... but how do you know? How do you know when all your efforts at maintaining good and open communication come to nothing? How do you keep your relationships in a place where a cry can be expressed and, more importantly, heard?
ReplyDeleteGlory be, is this too intense? Should we just go back to talking about iPods? :)